Python kills Possum

Description:

A Coastal Carpet Python kills and eats a Common Ringtail Possum (Pseudocheirus peregrinus). This is a spotting from earlier today: http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/213... I had only just arrived home from work this afternoon when I received a phone call from a friend still at work, and she said "Your snake has just killed a possum in the carpark, and it's eating it!!!" I am so jealous not to have witnessed this, but she has kindly supplied these photos for me to share on Noah. PS: I was told later that the possum was regurgitated, and it had a baby in it's pouch. The following day I found out the snake was not the one I had spotted. This one was larger and was found in a different section of the complex. The mother possum put up a good fight but was eventually overpowered and killed. At that moment, the baby joey emerged from the mother's pouch. Two of my work colleagues rescued the joey and took it to the local vet. Now an orphan, it will be placed into foster care until such time as it's big enough to be released back into the wild.

Your spotting has been nominated for the Spotting of the Week. The winner will be chosen by the Project Noah Rangers based on a combination of factors including: uniqueness of the shot, status of the organism (for example, rare or endangered), quality of the information provided in the habitat and description sections. There is a subjective element, of course; the spotting with the highest number of Ranger votes is chosen. Congratulations on being nominated!

I had already left work, so I didn't see this event. A friend took these photos and she was on the phone to me as it was happening. Had I been there I would have intervened. Right or wrong, that's what I would have done. A small bird or rodent would have been dispatched quickly, but this was a fairly large animal that put up a mammoth struggle for quite some time (or so I hear), and even I know it was too large for this snake. I probably would have been in tears too, but what annoys me is that people viewed this as if it was sport. As it turns out, the mother was killed but not eaten, the joey was left an orphan, and the snake still went without a meal. Those that berated me at work for saying I would have intervened would been singing a different tune had it been their cat or dog. I berated them for their indifference, and as it turned out, I think intervention would have had a better outcome. The baby survived, and that's the only happy note.

The baby went into foster care. When old enough to fend for itself, it'll be released back into the wild. There are plenty of reserves and national parks in Brisbane, so anywhere away from people is usually a good spot. I don't know how old they need to be before they're released.

The snake/s could be anywhere. There's a large wetland area nearby where they love to hide. As for the possum joey, it went into foster care. It was lucky not to have been killed along with its mother.